Meeting Community
Objectives through Street Design and Adopting a Transportation Language
Policy

"Urban streets can be safe and friendly if and only if the streets are designed
to physically and emotionally foster apt behavior by all their users. Conventional
engineering theories be damned, the true test of success for urban streets is if a child
pedestrian can independently get there from here safely and pleasantly. Unfortunately,
most urban streets fail by design."-Mayor
Graham

The City of West Palm
Beach has adopted an innovative approach to transportation planning, with
an emphasis on traffic calming. This has helped stabilize and revive the
downtown and several older, challenged neighborhoods. The intent is to
reestablish the quality of life and improve resident and visitor
perception of the built environment, thereby reversing the negative trends
associated with conventional transportation planning and automobile
dominance.

The City of West Palm
Beach’s Transportation Language Policy is intended to remove the biases
inherent in the current transportation language. This change is consistent
with the overall shift in the city’s planning and development philosophy
as West Palm Beach works toward becoming a sustainable community. The
policy creates a greater understanding of the stakeholders and true nature
of projects, which allows for a more equitable and balanced prioritization
of limited resources. Objective language is used for all correspondences,
resolutions, ordinances, plans, meetings, and when updating past
work.

Community Objectives through Street Design

When one hears the words
"traffic calming," three ideas typically spring to mind:

In West Palm Beach,
traffic calming is much more than this, starting with the adopted
definition: "the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the
negative effects of motor vehicle use, alter driver behavior, and improve
conditions for non-motorized street users."

This definition is based
on the one recommended by the Institute of Transportation Engineers
International Subcommittee. Therefore, traffic calming involves changing
the design and the role of the streets to reduce the negative social and
environmental effects of motor vehicles on individuals and on the
community in general.

Traffic Calming and Neighborhood Revitalization

Traffic calming is
self-enforcing; it lowers motor vehicle speeds and reduces aggressive
driving. It also increases motorists' respect for non-motorized users of
the streets through the physical features of the street design. Other
goals of traffic calming in West Palm Beach include:

promoting walking and
cycling;

increasing safety for
both motorists and non-motorists;

improving perceptions
of safety;

improving aesthetics;

assisting in the
revitalization of challenged areas; and

increasing the overall
quality of life along the street.

The city's approach to
traffic calming is "area-wide." Over time, the city will fulfill its goal
of affecting its entire urban area with appropriate levels of traffic
calming on all the various types of streets. The ultimate goal is to make
West Palm Beach unique, liveable, sustainable, "walkable,’ and the model
for cities throughout the country. By way of an example, before and after
photographs are provided of Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach.
This street spurred additional traffic calming efforts in the city and is
an excellent success story. Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach
was the city’s first traffic calming effort and proved to be a tremendous
success.

The city has implemented
several traffic calming projects since Clematis Street, resulting in
revitalization, reduction in street-related crimes (such as speeding,
prostitution, and illegal drugs), and rejuvenation of depressed commercial
corridors and challenged neighborhoods. Initially, the projects altered
driver behavior physically - leading to slower, more respectful motorists
and diminished cut-through traffic.

Then it was realized that
reducing speeds and the perceived dangers of vehicles also leads to
increased natural surveillance. This occurs through the presence of more
pedestrians, cyclists, and other residents of the area, thereby improving
the overall environment and inviting even more people back into the city.
Today, the impetus for future traffic calming projects is primarily to
rejuvenate declining neighborhoods and to invigorate business and
entertainment districts.

Traffic Calming, Crime Prevention, and Property
Values

Traffic calming can work
in conjunction with other crime prevention programs such as Crime
Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), but without requiring
closures, diverters, semi-diverters, or one-way streets. Done well,
traffic calming affects the quality of life, safety, and crime in
commercial and residential areas. It also helps with the city's historic
preservation efforts and home ownership programs. In a nutshell, it is a
powerful tool to help improve downtowns, revitalize challenged
neighborhoods, create street and civic pride, beautify the public realm
(often found only in the street), create the sense of safety, and provide
the unique feeling of place and community. Lastly, traffic calming
projects have attracted substantial private investment and have increased
property values nearby.

Transportation Language Policy

The majority of the
current transportation language was developed in the 1950s and 1960s. This
was the golden age of automobiles, and accommodating them was a major
priority in society. Times have changed, and creating a balanced,
equitable, and sustainable transportation system is the new priority. The
difficulty is that the transportation language has not evolved at the same
pace as the changing priorities and still maintains a relatively
pro-automobile bias. Continued use of the biased language does not promote
nor support addressing transportation issues in an objective way.

Removing Pro-Automobile Bias

Several biased words and
phrases are identified, and the rationale for the changes is explained.
The word improvements or upgrade is often used to refer to the addition of
through lanes, turn lanes, channelization, or other means of increasing
motor vehicle capacity and/or speeds. Though these changes may indeed be
improvements from the perspective of motor vehicle users, they would not
be considered such by other constituents of the city.

For example, residents may
not think that adding more lanes in front of their houses is an
improvement. Parents may not think a channelized right turn lane is an
improvement on their childŐs pedestrian route to school. Suggested
objective language includes being descriptive, e.g., use through lanes,
turn lanes, or using language such as modifications, changes, expansions,
widenings. Like improved and improvement, there are similarly biased words
such as enhance, enhancement, and deteriorate. Suggested objective
language is changed, decreased, increased.

Level of service is a
qualitative measure of describing the operational conditions of a facility
or service from the perspective of a particular set of users (motor
vehicle users, cyclists, pedestrians, etc.). If the set of users is not
specified, then it is a mystery as to which set is being considered. The
established bias enters the picture when it is assumed that unless
otherwise specified, level of service implies for motor vehicle users. The
objective way to use this term is to add the appropriate modifier after
level of service, such as level of service for motor vehicle users. If
level of service is used frequently for the same users in the same
document, using the modifier is only required at the beginning of the
document and periodically after that.

Traffic is often used
synonymously with motor vehicle traffic. However, there are several types
of traffic, i.e., pedestrian, cycle, and train traffic. To be objective,
if you mean motor vehicle traffic, then use motor vehicle traffic. If you
mean all types, then simply use traffic.

When considering
development, one frequently discusses the concept of traffic demand,
fluctuations in traffic demand, peak hour traffic demand, etc. However,
the concept of traffic demand contains a bias. There is really no such
thing as a demand for traffic, and traffic is not a commodity that most
people desire. Demand is overly strong and implies a sense of urgency
which does not necessarily exist. Objective language would be motor
vehicle use or travel demand.

In addition, promoting
alternative modes of transportation is generally considered a good thing.
However, the word alternative begs the question, ŇAlternative to what?Ó
The assumption is alternative to automobiles. Alternative also implies
that these modes are nontraditional or unconventional, which is not the
case with the pedestrian, cycle, nor transit modes. The direct and
objective language is non-automobile modes of transportation.

Other Misnomers

Further, accidents are
events during which something harmful or unlucky happens unexpectedly or
by chance. Accident implies no fault. It is well known that the vast
majority of accidents are preventable and that fault can be assigned. The
use of accident also reduces the degree of responsibility and severity
associated with the situation and invokes an inherent degree of sympathy
for the person responsible. Objective language includes collision and
crash.

Protect means shielding
from harm. However, when discussing protecting land for a right-of-way for
a street, the intent is not to shield the land from harm, but to construct
a street over it. Objective terms include designate and
purchase.

The city strives to make
the transportation systems operate as efficiently as possible. However,
care must be taken when using efficient because it is often confused with
the word faster. Do not assume that faster is necessarily more efficient.

Language Influences Thought

It is important to keep in
mind that language is one of the fundamental forms of communication. It is
especially critical to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the
terms, particularly those that are being used for communication. Until the
inherent biases that have been created over the last few decades are
removed, or at least acknowledged, it may be difficult to ensure that all
stakeholders and constituents are given proper consideration during
planning. Once the level of understanding is increased, the increased
level of equity should follow.